Thursday December 18th

We received a phone call from John this week to say that the roofing felt on our shed was torn and flapping about. It was a balmy 12 degrees today and sunny so we set off in good spirits with a small piece of spare felt and a ladder to do the job. I was all set for a coffee when we arrived, but Peter decided he needed to go and buy a new roll of felt, as the tear was bigger than expected. I set about digging a trench for next year's runner beans. My friend Di told me I could be adding my kitchen compost to the trench over the winter to rot down and make compost for the beans. It was so muddy, that while I was working I decided to start making a small path between the beans and the onions, to make it easier to walk between the crops. I dug out a little soil, found an old bag of sand and spread this to make a base. Then I added some small rocks and stones from the pile near the compost heap. It was quite warm and thirsty work, and I had just stopped for coffee when Peter arrived back with a new roll of roofing felt. He needed a hand to get the first sheet of felt on the roof, and I had just left him to it when there was a piercing yell and some unmentionable expletives. A gust of wind had lifted the piece of felt and sent the hammer sliding down the roof, only to land on his head! Who left the hammer on the roof?? Needless to say he was despatched to sit down while I located the tissues and the first aid kit. A lot of blood, a nasty bump and a headache were soon dealt with and he was anxious to be back on the job.
I finished the trench, spread the kitchen peelings, egg shells etc and admired a job well done. Bernie from next door was down today and in a talkative mood. I told him my broad beans were coming up but not all had made it. He asked me if I'd paraffined them. He said he keeps an old sock, soaks it in paraffin, then shakes the beans inside the sock before planting them. Apparently this deters the rats from eating them! Ah well, next year. He also said I might have have given my strawberries a little more space between the plants. I think I'm so used to working within the confines of a small garden that I just can't get used to all this space. Both he and his wife said how impressed they were with how much we'd done so far on the plot. Said it looked better than it had done for years. I felt quite proud. We had our daughter's dog, Betty with us today. She's a west highland white and we're looking after her for three weeks over Christmas. We tried using a spike with a chain attached to tether her to, but she didn't like it at all and kept getting all tangled up. In the end we let her off the leash and she just sniffed around the plot, and enjoyed rolling over and over in the mud and manure. By the time we went home she looked more like a west highland black!! Peter finished re-roofing the shed, and I collected some large lumps of concrete, an old motor and all the old roofing felt for delivery to the tip on the way home. A good day's work.